News outlets cover natural disasters purportedly as a public service. But there’s no denying that such coverage is a ratings boon for their bottom line – catering as it does to the perverse thrill of suspense that keeps us fixated on the hype of impending doom. [But] Americans are blessed with the technology, escape routes… Read more.
North Carolina
NCAA Basketball Championships: Hail, Carolina (north and south)
In my original commentary, I posited the improbable prospect of South Carolina emulating UConn by having both women and men win their respective championships. Sure enough, Carolina women and men won. It’s just that the feat was more north-south than south-south. For the women’s championship, South Carolina played a Mississippi team that seemed still in… Read more.
NCAA March Madness — and Then There’s the Women of UConn
Organizers hype the annual NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament as “March Madness.” They do so to exploit “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” inherent in low-seeded (a.k.a. Cinderella) teams upsetting top-seeded ones — often with buzzer-beating hail marys. Except that this year’s tournament hasn’t quite lived up to that hype. After all, the… Read more.